MAKKAH, 22 May 2006 — Officials of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice yesterday apprehended several Arab expatriates who reportedly manufactured and sold shemah (a snufflike substance which contains various ingredients) in the Al-Otaibiya district of Makkah.
The officials also seized more than two tons of the contraband from a secret manufacturing center in the city.
On noticing several schoolboys carrying pouches containing a substance for sniffing, the officials started a secret inquiry about its source and distribution.
After several discreet inquiries, the commission discovered a shop which sold various varieties of substances for smoking in sheesha in the Otaibiya Street.
Further inquiries led the commission officials to an old house in the neighborhood where several Arab expatriates manufactured the material.
In a surprise raid, the officials seized two tons ready for distribution in addition to large quantities of the raw material stored there.
The officials found the workers processing the material by pouring water and aromatic essence on powdered tobacco. After that, they packed the powder in small pouches which were sold for SR2 or SR3.
The expat workers earned between SR150 and SR200 on an average day selling it to students. One of them said that they buy the raw materials from the Souk Yemen area in Jeddah.
